Alphabet Tree Decorations Literacy Play

Add a little creative literacy play to the festivities this Christmas with some alphabet decorations! Fun for learning beginning sounds or for those who are ready to start making and reading short words independently too, in a playful hands-on way.

I picked up a small box of mini plastic tree baubles in the £1 shop and thought they would be fun for turning into a playful literacy activity with a Christmas theme!

Using a Sharpie marker I simply wrote one letter of the alphabet on each one, in lowercase on one side and upper on the reverse. Then I set them in a basket next to the kids’ own little tree as an Invitation to Play!

Pop (age 3) was first to find them and noticed the letters written on them straight away, looking immediately for her favourite letters in the basket, which are the ones in her own name of course! As she picked up each bauble we said the sound that the letter makes and emphasised it loudly as she hung it on the tree, to make it a fun game.

We left these out for her to come back to and play with again, and baby Bean loved putting them on and off the tree too including the main Christmas tree!)

Cakie was excited to see they had the alphabet on them and wanted to make words that she knew she could read. She challenged me to see if I could read them after she had hung them on the branches and then we played the game in reverse with me calling the sounds and her finding them, hanging them in the correct order and reading back to me the word that she had created.

This would make a great free play literacy table top activity in the classroom or as an addition to homeschool resources. We could keep them out all year and use them on a tree branch, or pack them away to find again next December ready for Bean to start learning!